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Impact Of Environmentally Focused Chemistry On High School Student Engagement And Scientific Understanding
Get PDFResearch has shown that traditional chemistry teaching methods tend to utilize individualized topic lectures and highly structured labs, with little opportunity for students to draw real world connections between topics. Unfortunately, student motivation to learn science also decreases throughout high school due to a perceived lack of relevance in their everyday lives. The goal of this project was to design an environmentally focused chemistry curriculum that improves the high school student learning experience and answers the guiding question: How can high school science educators improve student engagement and scientific understanding through environmentally focused chemistry curriculum? This project was also developed in response to updated Minnesota State Science standards and the need for a more cohesive 9th grade chemistry curriculum at a public high school in Minnesota. After researching the effectiveness of various non-traditional instructional methods, the developed unit curriculum implements phenomenon based learning and problem-based learning methods to help students learn chemistry concepts in an engaging environmentally focused manner
How Can a Non-Personal Interpretive Guide Increase Place Attachment for Visitors, Encourage the Appropriate Development of Sustainable Community-Based Ecotourism, and Increase Knowledge of the Desert and Coastal Ecosystems and Migratory Whales of Baja Mexico?
Get PDFSmall ecotour companies run whale-watching tours in remote, protected lagoons of Baja California Sur every winter, as gray whales migrate there to mate and give birth to their young. Often, tourists must drive for hours each way to reach the lagoons for their tour. When tourists get to the small villages that are the base camp for whale watching, their only guides are the boat captains, who do not normally speak English (the main language of tourists in the area). A non-personal interpretive guide would bridge the gap of information, so that tourists learn about the ecology, history, and culture of the area, as they drive to and from the lagoon. Learning more about the area with engaging and interactive interpretation is proven to increase the likelihood that visitors have a positive experience, become more connected to the place, and increase the likelihood that they might make conservation-based changes in their own lives. Using the plan, ecotour companies and village boat captains can learn more about community-based ecotourism that encourages sustainable growth for their community and the environment around them. This capstone project examines: How can a non-personal interpretive guide increase place attachment for visitors, encourage the appropriate development of sustainable community-based ecotourism, and increase knowledge of the desert and coastal ecosystems and migratory whales of Baja Mexico? Existing research on interpretation, culturally sustaining ecotourism, place attachment, and learning theories are the basis for the plan. A focus group was used to determine how to include information in the guide. Revisions to the original plan and guide will be made after the first season of use, and if successful, the plan and the guide can be modified as needed and used by other communities and ecotour companies in the future
History Day: Adapting the Program for the Sixth-Grade Classroom
Get PDFThis capstone paper and project seek to answer the question: How can the Minnesota Historical Society’s History Day program be differentiated and adapted for sixth-grade students? Feedback from teachers has found that there is a level of difficulty in the implementation of the project-based learning program, History Day, at the sixth-grade level. Sixth-grade is the group with the lowest participation in the program, and therefore has the fewest grade-appropriate resources available. The website designed for this capstone project focuses on interweaving the theories of Gloria Ladson Billings’ culturally relevant pedagogy to connect the History Day projects with working towards equity in the classroom. Through the work of Ladson Billings and the research from PBLWorks, I discovered that project-based learning projects can be excellent tools to assist in creating an equitable environment in the classroom. For that reason, this website intends to provide resources and information that can assist teachers in the implementation of History Day in their sixth-grade Minnesota Studies classroom. In addition to utilizing the culturally relevant pedagogy framework, this website grounds the History Day projects in Native American history; the goal being to further assist teachers in not only meeting Minnesota sixth-grade social studies standards, but also to strive towards incorporating more culturally authentic and representative material to meet gaps found by the Restoring Our Place report that was put out by the Understanding Native Minnesota campaign in 2022
“Use Your Teacher Voice”: How a Podcast Could Support ESOL Teachers’ Voices in Advocacy
Get PDFIt is clear from the current research that there is a lack of training at all levels for teachers that are advocating for ELLs and themselves. With the changing roles and needs of ESOL teachers working with marginalized EL communities, the push for co-teaching, and the emphasis on more collaboration, this project sets out to create a podcast in order to support listener learners in finding and amplifying their voices in advocacy. With a conceptual theoretical base, Bakhtinian Dialogisim, in conjunction with the chosen Chat Show genre in podcasting, these dialogues are ripe for participants to share their stories and create new meaning. The interdependent nature of advocacy and voice research meld for this project into a strategic framework of Listen & Notice, Learn & Evaluate, and Lead & Plan to Act. The mission of this podcast project is to open up a public square dedicated to amplifying the participating educators’ and students’ voices in hosted dialogues about their unique advocacy stories geared towards an audience of ESOL and other teachers who desire to discover their own voices in their own personal advocacy stories. The podcast will be a series of mini-professional development workshops, with each weekly podcast spotlighting a storyteller-educator, building a bridge between academia and the everyday advocacy language of teachers who are dedicating themselves to the lives of marginalized children and their families. The vision of this podcast is for participants and learners to listen and notice advocacy needs in their school communities for themselves and their students. By learning from other advocacy leaders’ stories and evaluating the needs of their own personal experiences and students’ experiences, teachers will be illuminated and empowered to lead others, creating a plan of action with a list of strategies to improve the lives of their students, as well as their own
Perceived Effectiveness of Legal English Teachers with Differing Qualifications
Get PDFThe research question addressed in this study was: what qualifications do Brazilian English as a Foreign Language teachers and students perceive Legal English teachers should possess if the objective is to prepare Brazilian legal practitioners whose first language is not English to be academically or professionally competitive within the world of Legal English? Topics explored in the literature review include distinctions between ESL and ESP, needs analysis in Legal English programs, and qualifications for teaching Legal English. A mixed methodology approach was utilized. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection tools were used, and consisted of a survey and interviews of both EFL students and teachers. Data revealed that Brazilian EFL teachers and students differed as to how they perceived the importance attributed to a LE teacher holding a law degree from a common-law country. Data also revealed that the EFL teachers and students differed as to how they perceived the importance attributed to a LE teacher holding EFL teaching degrees and possessing EFL pedagogical skills. Ultimately, the results suggested that EFL teachers and students differ with regards to the qualifications they perceive effective LE teachers should possess. Limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research were discussed
The Impact Of Language Attitudes On The Bilingual And Bicultural Self-Perceptions Of Fifth-Grade Latino Students
Get PDFThis study investigated the impact of language attitudes on the bilingual and bicultural self-perceptions of fifth-grade Latino students. The research questions posed in this study included: 1) What are the language attitudes (specifically toward English, Spanish, and Spanish-English bilingualism) held by Spanish-speaking English learners in Fifth Grade? and 2) How do these attitudes interact with students’ developing bilingual and bicultural self-perceptions? The literature review includes research related to heritage language maintenance; societal attitudes toward minority languages and their speakers; Latino language attitudes; language attitudes in multilingual educational settings; and the development of bilingual and bicultural self-perceptions. Participants in this study were 15 fifth-grade students attending a Latino dual-language school in a Midwest urban center. A mixed-methods paradigm was utilized, including both quantitative and qualitative measures. First, a questionnaire with multiple choice, Likert-style, and open-response items was administered to fifteen participants. Later, five of these participants were selected to take part in a focus group session. The results of this study reveal that the fifth-grade students held predominantly positive language attitudes toward Spanish, English, and Spanish-English bilingualism and biliteracy. Findings indicate that most students had a much deeper understanding of bilingualism than of biculturalism. In regard to a given language attitude predicting whether or not a student will self-identify as bilingual or bicultural, the data shows no direct correlation. However, this research sheds light on the many complexities surrounding the language attitudes and self-perceptions of Spanish-speaking pre-adolescent Latinos, such as the influence of their self-perceived language proficiency and their understanding of terms
Factors of Persistence in Multilingual ABE Secondary Credential Participants
Get PDFThe research question addressed in this study is What factors contribute to multilinguals’ persistence in adult secondary credential programs? ABE participants in general have a high rate of stopping out of programs. For those trying to earn a secondary credential in a second language, the goal of earning a secondary credential may be more complex. There was little research focusing on this population of ABE participants with this goal. This mixed methods retrospective case study examines which factors supported the persistence of three multilingual participants in Adult Basic Education (ABE) who earned their GED®. The supports are categorized into individual, family, institutional and community factors. The results of this study indicate that individual factors were the most significant in relation to persistence in the lives of the subjects. The importance of the other factors is also addressed as are the implications for ABE staff
How Do Schools Assess and Deliver Effective Professional Development to Mainstream Teachers With a Focus on Supporting Multilingual Learners?
Get PDFA significant educational concern in the state of Minnesota is that there is a substantial achievement gap between native English speakers and Multilingual Learners (MLLs). Despite implementation of federal (ESSA) and state legislation (LEAPS Act) designed to address this issue, an achievement gap still persists and Minnesota educators continue to struggle to support MLLs academically. This capstone project uses a synthesis from a literature review and the creation of a website, survey and pre-selected curated professional development resources in order to answer the question: How Do Schools Assess and Deliver Effective Professional Development to Mainstream Teachers With a Focus on Supporting Multilingual Learners? One answer to this question is to employ a combination of effective professional development features and the School-Wide English Learning (SWEL) framework in order to assist educators by identifying and enhancing their dispositions, knowledge and skills so MLLs are supported academically to the fullest extent
The Impact of French Cultural Beliefs and the French Philosophy of Eating on the Structure of Lunch in French Public Schools
Get PDFThe purpose of this capstone is to explore the guiding question of how the French cultural beliefs of food impact public elementary school lunches in France so that administrators of French immersion schools can better understand how the French philosophy of eating directly impacts/contributes to the structure of school lunch. This capstone analyzes contemporary French culture, food and eating culture in France, school lunches, and the socialization and time structure of lunches. It illustrates how French culture has shaped the French lunchroom and the impact these elements have on the health of students. To communicate this research, this project involved creating a professional development session aimed at staff and administrators of French immersion schools in the United States. The professional development is communicated through an interactive slideshow session informed by Darling-Hammond et al.\u27s (2017) discussion of active learning, collaboration, reflection, and ample time. This research provides a beneficial base for implementing elements of French culture and French eating habits into American French immersion public school lunchrooms
Influencing Middle School Students\u27 Perspective of Media Literacy
Get PDFThis project interrogates the influence middle school teachers have over media literacy in the classroom. It utilizes existing literature concerning media literacy and social studies curriculum. A curricular approach is offered to address media literacy in a middle school social studies classroom. By using this project, students will develop their understanding of media literacy and form the skills needed to navigate a media-saturated world